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The Plunge

I’m doing it. Everything. Everything I’ve been talking about doing for years and haven’t had the guts, the time, the drive, the resources, but mostly the guts to do. First up. This blog. Oh I’ve been thinking about it, talking about it, and like so many of us, doing absolutely nothing to make it happen. But no more. Mama’s taking the plunge!

Life is a journey and I’ve been moving a little too slowly of late, so, after years of hearing from my friends, “Why don’t you start a blog?” “You’re a writer, so write!” “People would love to read your blog!” and for years thinking, “Honestly, who the heck needs or even wants to hear from me?! With all the hundreds…” ok this conversation was almost eight years ago so let me revise… “with all the hundreds of THOUSANDS of other blogs out there? Who’s reading little ‘ol me?” (Rule number one of Amanda’s plunge-taking, “Be honest, or don’t bother.” Artifice can be mesmerizing, but ultimately sooooo dissatisfying.) So who’s taking time out of their precious social-media packed days to read what I’ve got to say? Feel free not to answer that. I’m going to be honest, but you don’t have to; especially if it’s brutally so.

I’ve decided it doesn’t really matter. This blog is my move into the fast lane. I know, I know, typing a few hundred words a day, a la Graham Greene doesn’t exactly sound like I’m embarking on a Jack Kerouac-esque journey of soulful discovery, but lest you be too quick to judge. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my, ehm, many years on this earth, it’s that the inner world is every bit as rich as the Boulevards of Paris, the beaches of Hawaii or the inner sanctum of Hollywood. More so. WAAAAY more.

That’s not to say that I’m vowing to a hermetic life in front of my computer. No, it means that I’m looking inward as a way to push out into the world. That my introspection, musings, and the like will certainly ignite that thing called, by a one Barry Michels in his extremely persuasive and shockingly helpful book, The Tools, Forward Motion. Robert Frost said it too, in his own way in that poem I cite as my favorite even if it’s completely unoriginal to say so, The Road Not Taken. Way leads on to way.

So I’m picking a path, and am filled with excitement for what’s to come. Truly. Do I wish for a Man Repeller kind of blogging success? I’d be lying if I said no, (rule number one rearing its head again). But in the meantime… “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined!” That’s Thoreau. I’m prone to quoting people who are measurably smarter than me. Thank God for them. And so it begins!

Disclaimer: If you’re one of those people who’ve assumed I’ve been living a rich, glamorous life filled with one chic party after the another, and ‘narry a trouble in sight, ha! Hold on to your red soles ladies, and gentlemen, this is the truth laid bare! What’s that? No one thought that? Oh. In that case. Let’s just get to it. Thanks for reading this mom. And as dad would say, “onward and upward!” He liked to quote smart people too. I think he got that one from C.S. Lewis. Standing on their shoulders… Onward!